YouTube as an educational tool?
This YouTube video — the Civil War in four minutes — provides an interesting lens for the visual learner. Histories of the Civil War, especially for the high school student, tend to lose the forest of the war in the trees of particular campaigns and battles; this little video provides a context for all of those details. One can see how the first years of the war were largely a bloody stalemate, look at how the war in the West and Gettysburg broke that stalemate, understand how Sherman’s March to the Sea broke the back of the Confederacy and grasp the strategic logic of campaigns designed to split the South and the North.
Hat tip to Cliopatria, an academic history blog.
[Editor's note: This video was removed from YouTube due to a copyright complaint. As of Jan. 5, 2009, the video was still available here and here.]
5 Comments:
1 jd2718
· May 26, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I love the animation, but I watched a few times, and love it a little less.
The maps move sort of quickly, and provide too little context. Physical geography: where are the mountains, the rivers? Human geography: where are the slaves? Economic geography: railroad junctions, which ports are major? Politically – Maryland’s thwarted secession, Missouri’s guerillas, Tennessee’s east-west divide.
The mounting deaths bar is difficult to interperet.
It’s still fun to see the animation, especially for the details you point out (War in the West, March to the Sea). And what was that foray into Ohio?
But wouldn’t kids be better off, at least at the high school level, with a series of static maps and accompanying text? The visual inspection of a pair of maps, with some variation on the question, “what happened?” I think that would be worth more than passively viewing this.
Or, if you want a real challenge, slow it down to half or quarter speed, and create a narration to accompany it. Now that would be a project.
Jonathan
2 phyllis c. murray
· May 27, 2007 at 4:46 am
Memorial Day began first to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. But there is another history which we must remember through a new lens. Portrait of African American Bravery and Patriotism
By: Phyllis Cynthia Murray
“Every American home, and especially every Negro American home, should have and keep in its confines a record of the great achievements of the Negro in this war. The older people should know of them and the young people should be taught them. They should grow up with these examples of bravery and patriotism engraved on their very souls.”
From: “A Pictorial History of The Negro in the Great World War 1917-1918″
It was my good fortune to come across this unique publication by the Tousissant Pictoria Co., Inc. The publication was printed in 1919 to record the bravery and heroism of the African Americans in war and further inspire and guide the race for the future. It was the intent of the publisher to “win and keep for it the high meed of esteem from the world which it so richly deserves.”
In 1999 I began researching the early African Presence in Scarsdale, NY. Subsequently this search brought me to Scarsdale’s WWII Memorial in Bonaface Circle. The World War II monument in Boniface Circle documents the presence of Scardalians who served our country in a time of war. This wall of honor included the names of three members of an African American Family: Leon Pitt, Martin Pitt and Theodore Pitt. There were others from this family , who served our country from this small community. Surya Peterson served in the United States Army from 1952 to 1955; Douglas Upshaw served in the U.S. Army; William Peterson served in the US Navy during World War II.
These were Scarsdale’s black soldiers fighting to secure the rights of others, drafted into the U.S. military services to secure the same freedoms African Americans could not enjoy in Scarsdale or anywhere else in America until after the civil rights legislation was passed in the 1960s. It is not an anomaly to find the names of African Americans among the many soldiers thus honored. The African presence in Scarsdale and elsewhere is as old as the incalculable towns /villages/cities in America.
These courageous black soldiers followed in the footsteps of the brave African Americans throughout our nation. African Americans did their part in the Revolution; in the War of 1812; in the Civil War; in the war with Spain, and at Carrizal, Mexico. In fact, the first man to fall in the Revolution was a black man, Crispus Attucks; Nicholas Biddle, was the first American to die for the Union during the Civil War in 1861; the first to fall in the Civil War was a member of one of the Northern regiments passing through Baltimore en route to the front; the first to fall in the war with Spain was Elijah Tunnell, who was killed at Cardenas Harbor in Cuba, and the first to fall in the beginning of America’s conflict with Germany was a colored man on one of the cattle ships that was torpedoed. The first to receive the French Gold Palm and the Croix de Guerre was a colored man, the first U.S. troops to reach the Rhine, and the first troops to march through the Triumphal Arch of the returning troops was the New York Gallant 15th Regiment. And lest we forget, Benjamin O. Davis, the first black general in the history of the United States, who served in the Spanish American War, World War I and World War II. Unfortunately, segregation in the armed forces did not end until President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981 in 1948.
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I do not believe it was just a coincidence that I received this book. Memorial Day is approaching again. Perhaps it is just the right time to celebrate the valiant men who made a way out of no way. Therefore I have unrolled this history for us to see today as we “win and keep for it the high meed of esteem which it so richly deserves.”
Heroes of the Old 15th Infantry
Officers and Men of the Regiment Who Have Been Awarded the Croix de Guerre for Gallantry in Action
“New York’s own colored soldiers have performed a military task which will be recorded forever as one of the brilliant achievements of their race. They have endured fatigue and privation without a murmur. They obeyed orders without hesitation or questioning. They have maintained iron discipline. And they have met the enemy with a courage and a striking power that have reflected added glory upon the American Army. To the question whether the colored race is capable of high achievements, it is only necessary to reply by pointing to he record of the 15th Regiment, New York Nation Guard, on the battlefield of France in defense of the menaced liberties of the world” New York Evening Mail. Feb. 18. 1919″
SERGT. A. A. ADAMS
CORP. JOHN ALLEN
LIEUT. H. J. ARGENT
LIEUT. R.R. DE ARMOND
LIEUT. G.A. ARNSTON
CORP. FARRANDUS BAKER
SERGT E. W. BARRINGTON
SERGT. M. W. BARRON
SERGT. WILLIAM D. BARTOW
CAPT. AARON T. BATES
CORP. FLETCHER BATTLE
CORP. R. BEAN
CORP. J. S. BECKTON
PVT. MYRIL BILLINGS
SERGT. ED. BINGHAM
LIEUT. J. C. C BRADNER
PRVT. ARTHUR BROKAW
PVT. H.D. BROWN
PVT. T. W. BROWN
LIEUT. ELMER C. BRUCHER
PV. WM. BUTLER
1ST CL. PVT. J. L. BUSH
SERGT. JOSEPH CARMEN
CORP. T. CATTO
CORP. G. H. CHAPMAN
SERGT. MAJOR B. W. CHEESMAN
ACTP. JOHN H. CLARKE, JR.
LIEUT. P.M. CLENDENIN
CAPT. FREDERICK W.COBB
SERGT. ROBERT COLLINS
LIEUT. J. H. CONNOR
SERGT. W M COX
1ST SERGT. C.D. DAVIS
LIEUT. CHARLES DEAN
PVT. P.DEMPS
WAGONER MARTIN DUNBAR
CORP. ELMER EARL
PVT. FRANK ELLIS
SERGT.SAM FANNELL
CAPT. ROBERT F. FERGERSON, JR.
CAPT. EDWARD J. FARRELL
CAPT. HAMILTON. FISH. JR.
CAPT. EDWIN R.D. FOX
LIEUT. CONRAD FOX
SERGT. RICHARD W. FOWLER
PVT. ROLAND FRANCIS
Pvt. B. Freeman
Pvt. I. Freeman
Sergt. A. Gains
Wagoner Richard O.Goins
Lieut. R.C. Grams
Pvt. Stillman Hanna
Pvt. Hugh Hamilton
Pvt. G.E. Hannibal
Pvt. Frank Harden
Pvt. Frank Hatchett
Corp. Ralph Hawkins
Colonel Wm. Hayward
Lieut./ E.H. Holder
Sup. Sergt. Wm. HoLliday
Corp. Earl Horton
Pvt. g. Howard
Lieut. Stephen H. Howey
Sergt. MAJOR Clarence C. Hudson
PVT. ENREST HUNTER
SERGT. S. JACKSON
CORP. CLARENCE JOHNSON
1SR SERGT. DE F. JOHNSON
PVT. GILBERT JOHNSON
SERGT. GEORGE JONES
LIEUT. GORMAN R. JONES
SERGT. JAMES H. JONES
PVT. SMITHFIELD JONES
PVT. J.C. JOYNES
LIEUT. W.H. KEENAN
LIEUT. ELWIN C. KING
LIEUT. HAROLD M. LANDON
LIEUT. NILS H. LARSEN
MAJOR DAVID A. LESPERANCE
LIEUUT. W.F. LELAND
PVT. E.W. LEWIS
PVT. W.D. LINK
MAJOR ARTHUR W. LITTLE
LIEUT. WLALTER R. LOCKHART
SERGT. B. LUCAS
PVT. LESTER A. MARSHALL
PVT. LEWIS MARTIN
1ST SERGT. A.J. MCARTHUR
CAPT. SETH B. MACCLINTON
PPVT. ELMER MCGOWAN
PVT. HERBERT MC GIRT
CAPT. COMERFORD MCLOUGHLIN
PVT. L MCVEA
1ST. SERGT. H. MATTHEWS
1ST SERFT JESSE A MILLER
1ST SERGT. WM. H. MILLER
SEERGT EE. MITCHELL
PVT HERBERT MILLS
CORP. M. MOLSON
LIEUT. E.D. MOREY
SERGT. G.A. MORTON
LIEUT. E. A. NOSTRAND
SERGT. SAMUEL NOWLIN
CAPT. JOHN O. OUTWATER
LIEUT. HUGH A PAGE
LIEURT OLIVER H. PARISH
SERGT. C.L PAWPAW
PVT. HARVEY PERRY
SERGT. CLINTON PETERSON
LIEUT COLO W.A. PICKERING
LIERUT RICHARD PRATT
1ST SERGT. JOHN PRATT
SERGT. H.D. PRIMAS
PVT. JEREMIAH REED
LIEUT. DURANT RICE
PVT. JOHN RICE
SERT. SAMUEL RICHARDSON
SERFT. CHARLES RISK
PVT F RITCHIE
LIEUT G.S. ROBB
CORP. FRED ROGERS
PVT. LIONEL ROGERS
PVT. GEORGE ROSE
LIEUT R.M. ROWLAND
SERGT. PERCY RUSSELL
SERGT. L SANDERS
PVT, WILLIAM SANFORD
PVT. MARSHALL SCOTT
CAPT. LEWIS E. SHAW
CAPT. SAMUEL SHETHAR
LIEUT. HOYT SHERMAN
MAJOR G. FRANLIN SHIELS
PVT. SIMPSON
1ST SERGT. BERTRAND U. SMITH
PVT DANICEL SMITH
SERGT. HERMAN SMITH
CORP. R.W. SMITH
MAJOR LORILLARD SPENCER
SERGT. J. T. STEVENS
CORP. DAN STORMS
LIEUT GEORGE F. STOWELL
CORP. T. W. TAYLOR
LIEUT FRANK B. THOMPSON
SERGT LLOYD THOMPSON
SERGT A.L. TUCKER
SERGT. GEORGE VALASKA
LIEUT. D.H. VAUGHN
CAPT. EDWARD A. WALTON
CAPT. CHARLES WARREN
SERGT. LEON WASHINGTON
PVT. CASPAR WHITE
CAPT. JAMES WHITE
SERGT. JESSE J. WHITE
1ST. SERGT. C.E. WILLIAMS
PVT. ROBERT WILLIAMS
SERGT.REAVES WILLIS
PVT. H. WIGGINGTON
SERGT. L. WILSON
PVT. TIM WINSTON
SERGT E. WOODS
PVT GEORGE WOODS
LIEUT. A.D. WORSHAM
SERGT. E.C. WRIGHT
PVT. GEORGE WOOD
LIEUT A.D. WORSHAM
SERGT. E.C. WRIGHT
Scarsdale, like so many towns and villages, has many vestiges of the African presence from its early beginning to the present. The Ghanian Sankofa symbol, embedded in an early coffin in Ole New York urges us to “Look to the past to understand the present and inform the future.” Hence, we can begin this journey by reading the murals, paintings, headstones, and memorial walls because the history of our towns has been carefully documented there. African American history is documented in the Archives, Libraries and the notes of Historians past and present. It is documented in the letters of our founding fathers.
John Henrik Clarke said it best: “History is not everything but it is the starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be.”
The African presence is as old as the village itself. And it is being unrolled today for understanding on the map of human geography…lest we forget.
3 Leo Casey
· May 27, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I may not have been entirely clear in my original introduction, given some of the comments here and on the other blogs. I do not think that this sort of presentation is a substitute for teaching a full history of the Civil War — it simply is a tool that provides a perspective that is often missing in histories of the Civil War.
4 jd2718
· May 27, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Fair enough. But how could you use it? Or is it just a gee whiz video for older folks? (and it is kinda neat).
Maybe just to discuss what its strengths and shortcomings are…
5 mister g
· Jun 2, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Gee, and wouldn’t it be nice if the DOE actually allowed us to use YouTube in the classroom?
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